51. To meditate is sublime.
Meditation is the center. We feel embedded in a world of multiplicity, and yet
we sense the Universal. Meditation, then, is the doorway by which duplicity is
subsumed into Universality.

The three-fold Trika tells us in no
uncertain terms that one who can meditate with perfect Awareness in the midst of
daily life is far superior to one who can meditate upon retiring to a forest or
a cave.

I remember, with a certain amount of fondness, the days
that I used to meditate every day for many hours in a single story home with six
kids, a wife, and two cats. In fact, the lone bathroom was right outside our
bedroom door (where the puja was). I can tell you with an absolute surety that
one can indeed experience one's own inner divinity amidst the sound of a
flushing toilet bowl.

When meditating we do not lose our senses or
our sense perception; what we loose is the sense of outward oriented Awareness.
That is to say, Awareness is withdrawn firstly from the five senses, and then
from the mind itself. When Awareness is withdrawn from the mind there is a very
natural movement away from reaching out and grabbing what we
perceive.

This is most important, this movement away from our
constant judgements on sense perceptions by the mind.

Did you
know, O Lovers of Shiva, that things only matter because we make it so? Things
have weight in our mind because we give them weight. What is quite interesting
to one individual might not be worth a second glance to another. One man's trash
is another man's treasure.

And so we meditate. We withdraw
Awareness from the senses, from the mind, and simply abide in Awareness. Like
two mirrors put in front of each other, we plunge into the state of Awareness
that is Aware of Awareness. We cannot describe this state as if it were an
object, for it is the energy of Subjectivity. We can only allude to it, speak of
it, learn from divine ones how to partake in it. One who remains inwardly in the
energy of Subjectivity whilst moving about in daily life is called a Siddha, one
who abides in perfect non-duality. For such a one, meditation is the natural
state; there is no "meditation vs. mundane life."

I remember a
story my Guru, Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda, once told; when he was a boy
of around ten years he was playing in the ashram's main hall with another boy. A
man who was sitting for meditation became annoyed and asked them if they were
aware that he was meditating, to which my Guru replied "If you were meditating,
we wouldn't be bothering you!"

Which brings me back to the
beginning of this song wherein I was describing the sounds of children's shrill
voices and a flushing toilet bowl. Regarding meditation, some
advice:

When meditating, you will still hear but don't listen; you
will still see but don't look; you will still smell but don't sniff; you will
still taste but don't relish; you will still touch but don't feel. These things
have no weight when the mind is still.

The senses and the brain
still work as well as ever, but we don't mind. We don't give these sensory
activities any weight because we have put our mind to bed for a time in order
that we may abide perfectly.

It's the best, free, and most
rewarding vacation from mental duplicity that we will ever
take.